Vietnam veteran: 'The heroes are still over there'

Charles Caldwell who served in the United States Marine Corps carries a wreath with Pataskala Mayor Mike Compton during a ceremony to honor Vietnam Veterans.(Photo11: Jessica Phelps/The Advocate)Buy Photo

Standing in a gazebo out of the rain with numerous fellow veterans, Frank Miller said, “We were fortunate to get home. All the heroes are still over there.”

Miller served in the U.S. Army as a radio signal operator in Cam Ranh Bay and Nha Trang during the Vietnam War.

Miller and area Vietnam veterans and their spouses joined local officials and Pataskala Rotary members Thursday at noon, gathered downtown at the Veteran’s Green for a wreath-laying, a prayer and the singing of the National Anthem.

All of that was followed by a free meal and the sharing of more memories at the Depot Street Coffeehouse.

Vietnam vets were paid tribute across the nation for National Vietnam Commemoration Day on Thursday.

The Pataskala ceremony was organized and performed by the Pataskala Rotary Club and considered to be the first in an annual recognition of Vietnam-era vets, in accordance with an action signed by President Donald Trump last year declaring March 29 the standing date to honor our nation’s Vietnam vets.

The significance of that March date was spelled out in a proclamation issued by Newark Mayor Jeff Hall: “It was March 29, 1973, when the last American combat troops left Vietnam to return home, nearly two decades…since the Vietnam War began in November of 1955.”

Bob Taggart was an Army telecommunications specialist in Nha Trang from 1969-70. Prior to Thursday’s ceremony, he shared some memories, recalling the bay there: “The swimming was real nice,” he said, then added dryly, “…between the rockets and the mortars.”

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Local veterans salute during the singing of the National Anthem during a ceremony in Pataskala honoring veterans who served in Vietnam.(Photo11: Jessica Phelps/The Advocate)

His wife, Diana, was also a Vietnam-era veteran. Of the March 29 tribute, he said, “This is the consummation of a lot of things. It’s good for me, personally, to be with people who went through what I went through. And it’s nice to commemorate and honor the ones that didn’t come back.”

Taggart added, “And it’s nice to get together and socialize. I think it helps a lot of veterans to get together. I think it can help with stress…”

One of those who copes with not just physical wounds from the war, but also with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is Paul Clark, a Marine and retired Columbus Police Officer who was in attendance with his wife, and his service dog of two years, Alice.

The 1961 Watkins Memorial High School graduate served from 1962-67 during the war era.

Clark, a three-time Purple Heart recipient, was also awarded the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry at Tam Ke.

He now has a prothesis in place of his left leg. That’s a result, he’s quick to point out, not of any war injury, but rather from a succession of injuries and resulting complications from his service as a police officer.

However, Clark added, not terribly long after retiring from the force, he began to suffer what he called “flashbacks.”

At Tam Ke, Clark lost most of his unit in the early morning hours of battle. That battle, he’s declared, “still affects me 50 years later.”

Alice, he said, helps him with the memories and the stress, and he praised the VA in Newark for helping him get his dog.

Clark also shared a special plaque he’d prepared for his former teacher, Larry L. Lintner, his football coach at Watkins and whom he credited for teaching “this farm boy never to quit.”

Clark presented his Cross of Gallantry to Lintner in the 2017 Pataskala Street Parade.

Ken Dray served in the U.S. Air Force from 1967 to ’71. Stationed in Hawaii, Dray flew “all over Southeast Asia,” he said, “carrying high-ranking Air Force officials back and forth between meetings,” and moving materials, people and supplies. He actually met his wife, Karen, in Honolulu, and he has lived in Pataskala for about 15 years.

Larry Cope served in the Army from 1963-64, performing helicopter maintenance in Saigon. Standing under the gazebo eaves and looking out into the rain, he said, “It’s great to have this turnout with the weather. It’s nice to see so many of us are still around.”

Pataskala Rotarian Judy Baird noted the club holds three events each year in tribute to Vietnam veterans, in conjunction with the Vietnam War Veterans Commission.

Of the March 29 event, Pataskala Mayor Mike Compton pledged, “We’ll be doing this every year to recognize our veterans.”